Voussoirs for the construction of circular and arched masonry.



A. DODS. VOUSSOIRS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF CIRCULAR AND ARCHED MASONRY.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. :0. I917. I 1,269,065. Patented June11,1918.

ITED STATES @TENTOFFIQR ANDREW Don's, QFjMIMICo, .oivrnnrogjcnnnnn.

' voUssoIns 'FQR'THE oo'ns'rnucrron' or c'rncuriae. nnnnn'c'nnn ivrnsonnTo all wkom z't may mm;

Be it known that I, ANDREW Donsy'of the v-illage'of Mimico, in thecounty'of York and Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, haveinvented certain new and useful Imp'rovements in Voussoirs for theConstruction of Circular and Arched Masonry; and I hereby declarethat'the following is a'full,

clear, and exact description of the same;

My invention relates to circular-and archedmasonry, constructed ofvoussoirs,'- which may be either solid or hollow blocks, bricks orstones, the terms-circular and arch, in

their widest signification being commonly understood to -mean almostanything of a curved shape employed for the purpose of bearing welght orreslstm'g pressure, but in a morerestricted and mechanical'senseybeingdefined =asf= a collection of truncated wedge-shaped bodies, held "inposition by mutual pressure, and-the adhesion of the mortar and cementinterposed between them. The object-of my present inventiontherefore isto so construct thevoussoirs that-a state of' equipollence will beestablished around-the-circumference of the structure or the arcthereof, and aninter-locking condition will be createdto resist theinternal and" external pressure thereon, the formation of theinter-docking joints being such as 1 to prevent the dislodgment' of themortar or' cement during the erection of the structure,

and to set up a wedging 0r expansiveactionin a circumferential direction'when the pressure is thereon.

Withthis object in view two sets of alternately arrangedwouss'oirs areemployed, one of which for convenience may bextermed, the key, and theother, the locking voussoirs. Each key voussoir consists of an areshaped segment, eithe'r solid or hollowand glazed or unglazed, as thecase may be, to meet the Specification of Letters Patent. i une 191-8,

1 Application filed January 10, 191?. Serial No. 141,673.

out'of the'joints during" the erection of the masonry,-and operate, bythe expansive action of the traverses of the'zig-zag's to resisttheradial separationof the voussoirs during the erection 'of the masonryand tend toincrease the mutual pressure of the voussoirs when subjectedtointernal or external pressure,- '-and when used in sewer, conduit andtunnel construction, present" a minimum of direct connection-for seepagethrough the joints to or'from thesurrounding soil, the voussoirs beingpreferably made hollow from salt glazed vitrified clay, similar to thatused in the manufactu-reof circular salt glazed vitrified sewer pipefiFor an understanding of theinvention,

reference is to be had tothefollowing' description and to theac'c'ompanying -draw ingsyin which Figure 1 is'a verticalfsectionof acircular-sewer,conduit or, tun'nel constructed in accordance with thisinvention.

of one of the "locking voussoirs: Fig. 3' is a side-elevation ofthe'construction shown in Fig; 3. "Fig. 4cisa longitudinal sectionaldetail -view'ofa branch voussoir. Fig. 5' is a" section takenat rightangles to Fig. 4:, and Fig. (iisaplan viewfrom thein'terior surface ofthe :voussoir' shown in Fig; I 4.

In" the accompanying l drawings each 'vous soir'a' isshownl to be of ahollow formation withthe-arc of its interior wall a concentric' withthat of its exterior'wall a; these walls beingbracecl by-a stay a radialto the center ofthe'structure, and I joined .by- 'zi -zag' or staggeredsides 41*, the chord of the exterior wall a abeing g'reater -than thechord of theinterior wall.

Eachvoussoir-'fiisbf a hollow formation with the arc of its interiorwall 7) concentric with that of its exterior wall b these walls beingbraced by a stay radial to the center of the structure, and joined byzig-zag or staggered sides 32*, the chord of the interior wall beinggreater than that of the exterior wall, the zigzag or staggeredformation of these sides corresponding to that of the voussoir a so thatwhen assembled the traverses of the zig-zags of each voussoir b willabut against the corresponding traverses of the zig-zags of the adjacentvoussoirs a, each of these formations providing a truncated wedge shapedsegment, one being substantially the invert Fig. 2 is a sideelevation ofthesame. Fig. 8 is" a sectional 'detail view of the other, and whenhollow combining a minimum of weight and a maximum of strength, and ifvitrified eliminating the possibility of seepage and absorption eitherinternally or externally through the voussoirs which is most essentialin masonry con- I segment angles of about sixty degrees, the.

traverses a form with the inner arc of the segment similar angles, andthe traverse a is at substantially right angles to the traverses a, abut these angles may be varied at will. As shown in Figs. 1 and 3 the'ziga zag sides b each consists of three traverses, 6 b and bcorresponclmg to, and in parallelism with the traverses a a and a of thevoussoirs a, the direction of the traverses 6 Z2 6' being the invertofthe traverses a a, a respectively and abutting against the same whenassembled. The formation of the traverses (1 b and a, b creates dovetailjoints at the inner and outer circumference of the segments and not onlyprevents the internal and external pressure on the structure fromcausing the radialv displacement of any or all of the voussoirs, butenables such pressure to increase the mutual pressure of the voussoirsagainst each other until a state of equilibrium exists, the purpose ofthe mortar, it might be explained, being not so much to maintain thevoussoirs in their assembled relation in the structure as to prevent aseepage through the joints either from the exterior or interior of themasonry when erected, as the formation of the joints establishesaperfect lock radially between the parts under.

Gopflec at this patent may be obtained for normal conditions andincreases the holding tendency of the look under pressure.

When the voussoirs are employed as casings for columns or in theconstruction of arches for engineering or architectural work it may notbe necessary to vitrify them, but it maybe necessary for engineeringpurposes to make them solid instead of hollow. Therefore, it is notdesirous to confine the invention to either the, vitrified or hollowconstruction.

What I claim, however, asnew and desire to secure by Letters Patent is-A sewer construction comprisingtwo sets of voussoirs in which all of thevoussoirs of the same set are of the same size and shape but differ insize and shape from those of the other set, and the voussoirs of eachset alternately interlock with those of the other set; each voussoir ofone set comprising an arched wedge-shaped segment, having zigzag sides,each side consisting of two parallel traverses located at the inner andouter extremities of the side, diverging from the radius of the voussoirand unequal in length, and a diagonaltraverse connecting the innerextremities of the divergingtraverses, each voussoir of the other sethaving zig-zag sides each consisting of two parallel traverses locatedat the inner and outer extremities of the side and converging toward theradius of the voussoir, and a diagonal traverse connecting the innerexternal pressure.

Toronto, Ontario, December 18th, 1916. AN DODS.

Signed in the presence of.-'

CHAs. H. RIoHEs, T. Lows.

five cents each, by addressing the Gormnissione r of Patents.

Washington, D. G,

